Credit: Associated Press

Lineal middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez spoke last week . . . out of both sides of his mouth. This was not the result of a swollen jaw.

With a Tuesday deadline looming to make a deal with middleweight champion Gennady Gennadyevich Golovkin, Alvarez sent out a press release saying he so much wanted to fight Golovkin that he’s giving up his share of the middleweight title to avoid being forced to do it. Welcome to boxing, where everybody wants to fight somebody until the opportunity is there.

The former 154-pound champion laid claim to a portion of the WBC middleweight title in an odd way, winning it from Miguel Cotto last year after he’d won it from Sergio Martinez the year before. Martinez was well shot and hasn’t fought since. Same is true of Cotto, frankly.

Meanwhile the undefeated Golovkin (35-0, 32 KOs) has knocked out 22 straight opponents and wears the title belts of the WBA, IBF, IBO and the WBC but not the lineal crown, whatever that is these days. How, you may wonder, can Golovkin be WBC champion if Alvarez won it from Cotto? I could explain it but it’s easier and more truthful to say this: That’s boxing.

Alvarez talked big in the minutes after knocking former junior welterweight champion Amir Khan cold with one punch on May 7 when Khan moved up to challenge Alvarez at 155 pounds, both sides knowing he got there with a suspect chin and a decided size disadvantage. Those who wanted to ignore all that, called it “spectacular” and took at face value Alvarez’ decision to call Golovkin into the ring after the fight and insult him, claiming he feared no man and would fight anyone.

Perhaps so but business is business and Alvarez and his promoter, Oscar De La Hoya, know they can do big business at 154 pounds without having to deal with the potentially concussive nature of Golovkin’s punches. So, like Khan, down they went Wednesday, returning to junior middleweight and returning the middleweight belt to the WBC, where Golovkin already wore and relinquished it.

“After much consideration, I instructed my team at Golden Boy Promotions to continue negotiating a fight with Gennady ‘GGG’ Golovkin and to finalize a deal as quickly as possible,” Alvarez said. “I also informed the WBC that I will vacate its title.

“For the entirety of my career, I have taken the fights that no one wanted because I fear no man. Never has that been more true than today. I will fight GGG, and I will beat GGG, but I will not be forced into the ring by artificial deadlines. I am hopeful that by putting aside this ticking clock, the two teams can now negotiate this fight, and GGG and I can get in the ring as soon as possible and give the fans the fight they want to see.”

In other words, Golovkin is refusing to fight at a lesser catch weight than the middleweight division’s 160 pounds and neither side could agree on a purse split. With a WBC ordered purse bid looming that would have likely split the money 55-45, the young man who will fight anyone decided “not today.”

In fairness, Alvarez has the economic hammer. He is a far bigger pay-per-view commodity than Golovkin and with the stronger resume and deserves more money and a bigger guarantee. The issue, of course, is always how much bigger.

How much bigger is also the issue when it comes to what weight they might fight at, assuming they ever get around to doing that. Golovkin can claim all he wants that he’s middleweight champion so they must fight at 160, but it rings hollow because he often said he’d face Floyd Mayweather Jr., a natural welterweight at best, at a lower weight.

If he’d do it for Mayweather, why not Alvarez? We do not know. All we know is Alvarez’ promoter issued a statement saying: “There is no denying that Canelo is the biggest star in the sport of boxing. He is eager to get in the ring with ‘GGG’ to show the world that he is also the best pound for pound fighter in the sport, but we won’t negotiate under a forced deadline. Now that the WBC title is off the table, I am hopeful that ‘GGG’ and his promoter K2 Promotions will come to the table in good faith and get this deal done.”

Alvarez’ handlers believe by giving up the middleweight title they hold all the leverage because the WBC can’t force them to face Golovkin and GGG can’t make big money without Alvarez. He could, of course, continue knocking off second-tier challengers but, at 34, Golovkin’s fistic body clock is ticking.

Don’t think Alvarez’ people don’t recognize that either. The older and staler Golovkin grows, the easier the fight becomes for the 25-year-old Alvarez, who arguably has yet to hit his prime. By the time he does, Golovkin could be past his.

You don’t think that’s the idea do you? After all, Alvarez said he’s not afraid to fight anyone. He just didn’t say when.

Prelude to rematch?

Last week, with only minimal bombast, promoter Bob Arum settled his $100 million lawsuit against rival promoter Al Haymon, who runs Premier Boxing Champions and pretty much every American television outlet for the sport except HBO.

When Arum filed suit last July he claimed Haymon was in violation of the Ali Act, which in theory prohibits a man from being both a fighter’s manager and promoter. That’s because, again in theory, the manager has a fiduciary duty to the fighter while the promoter does not so how do you wear both hats? I don’t know. Ask Don King and the Duva family.

Haymon has more than 200 fighters under contract and has carpet bombed the television landscape with fights on prime time, cable and network TV. He’s yet to create a star but he’s certainly spending a lot of somebody else’s money to try and do it.

Arum insisted he did not settle because the two had agreed on a rematch between Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao, as was rumored. Maybe not but it makes a good story and, frankly, a lot of sense. The latter is why it might not happen but if I was a betting man . . . guess?

Arum claimed Haymon was trying to monopolize the sport. He may be, but how does that make him different from every other big-time promoter of the past 50 years? It doesn’t. He just isn’t using his money to do it and that seems to grate on Arum and rival promoter De La Hoya, who is also suing Haymon and has yet to settle.

Wilder is peeved

WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder, the first American-born heavyweight titlist in nearly a decade, thought he would be facing ex-WBA champ Alexander Povetkin last night in Moscow only to see the fight canceled when Povetkin tested positive for meldonium, a banned PED popular with Russian athletes. It is the same drug that led to the suspension of Russian tennis star Maria Sharapova and one of those that has the Russian Olympic team in turmoil over charges of widespread doping of its athletes.

Wilder’s promoter, bombastic Lou DiBella, was livid but agreed with the WBC’s decision to cancel the fight even though Wilder said he was willing to face Povetkin despite the obvious health concerns.

Povetkin’s promoter tried to claim the positive test was a result of something Povetkin ingested last year, before meldonium was banned, but Dr. Margaret Goodman, whose organization oversaw the testing, said Povetkin tested negative for any banned substances on April 7, 8 and 11. When her organization returned to conduct another test April 27, he came up positive, indicating it was sometime between April 11 and 27 that the substance was used.

The cancellation cost Wilder $4,504,500 in lost purse, plus a potential additional $715,000, which was set to go to the winner. He will not be paid any of that but may sue in an effort to recoup some of his losses.

Good luck getting that out of a Russian court.

Pac-Man pol sitting

As expected, Pacquiao won one of 12 available Senate seats in the recent Philippines elections but it doesn’t seem as if he’s quite ready to fully accept the politician’s role.

Pacquiao finished seventh in the race for the 12 seats in a crowded field but soon after announced he’d like to represent the Philippines at this summer’s Olympic Games in Rio, the first that will allow professional boxers into the competition.

“I need to ask if the Filipino people will allow me to participate in the Olympics,” the 37-year-old, eight-division world champion said.

Pacquiao carried the Philippines’ flag at the 2008 Games in Beijing, but did not participate.

Short jabs

Former unified heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko recently told England’s Boxing News he didn’t recognize himself in the ring the night he lost his titles to Tyson Fury. “I didn’t see Klitschko there,” he said. “I’m like, ‘Excuse me, can you throw a punch?’ I was absent. My body was in the ring but I was not present and, as I said, I started to get in the fight in the 12th and final round but it was too late.” . . .

The HBO replay of Alvarez-Khan did a good number, interest created by talk of the spectacular one-punch finish in the sixth round. The replay averaged 767,000 viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research, and spiked at 1.005 million just before the knockout — a 31 percent increase from the replay average.